Bhubaneswar, Jan. 31: The fate of around 1,500 students hangs in balance because of the alleged dilly-dallying by the state government in issuing them registration numbers necessary to appear for the first semester exams starting February 11.

These students had gained direct admission into private engineering colleges last year following a high court order allowing the institutions to fill up 10 per cent seats at their level through management or NRI quota.

However, the state government had challenged the order and filed a writ appeal in the court, stating that the Odisha Joint Entrance Examination (OJEE) committee must be allowed to fill up the total 15 per cent NRI seats, numbering around 4,000.

The court later ruled that of the total seats, 10 per cent seats should be handed over to the institutions, leaving the rest for the OJEE committee, said secretary of Odisha Private Engineering Colleges’ Association (Opeca) Binod Dash.

“Consequently, the policy planning board, decided in December last year that steps would be taken to regularise the students. All colleges have also submitted the list of candidates admitted against the 10 per cent seats to the chairman of the OJEE committee. However, even after a month, the students have not been regularised,” he said.

“The students were admitted legitimately, in accordance with the high court order. We fail to understand why the state government is taking so long to issue registration numbers. Apparently, the file is pending with the chief minister,” Dash added.

Secretary of technical education Chandra Sekhar Kumar said: “The law department has already cleared the file and we are only waiting for a formal government order.”